Twitter is expanding recommended tweets to all users, including people who managed to avoid them until now.
In an announcement, the company states:
“We want to ensure everyone on Twitter sees the best content on the platform, so we’re expanding recommendations to all users, including those who may not have seen them in the past.”
Twitter links to a blog post from September that explains how recommendations work.
In short – recommendations are algorithmically selected tweets from accounts you don’t follow.
By surfacing recommended tweets alongside other content in the main feed, Twitter aims to help users discover other accounts they may be interested in following.
This change doesn’t necessarily mean that people who saw recommended tweets will start seeing more of them.
Twitter’s announcement emphasizes this update applies to people who weren’t already seeing recommended tweets.
However, actual users report seeing an uptick in recommended tweets. Some are even getting recommendations in their notification tab.
My Twitter feed is at least 30% recommended Tweets.
It looks like Twitter is turning into TikTok: a personalized feed based on user behavior, not on who you choose to follow.
— Austin Rief ☕️ (@austin_rief) December 1, 2022
Tfw Twitter keeps trying to put recommended tweets in my notifications tab pic.twitter.com/JSZtlaOzsU
— Kyle Foley (@KFoleyFL) December 1, 2022
If you don’t enjoy recommended tweets or see too many, you can switch to the chronological feed and avoid them entirely.
We’d love to hear how we can make them better! In the meantime, you can switch to Latest Tweets by clicking the sparkle icon.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 30, 2022
The above tweet’s ratio will give you an idea of the consensus toward recommendations and the lack of options for turning them off.
A vocal contingent of Twitter users would prefer to see more relevant recommendations or have more ways to turn them off.
It was only a few months ago that Twitter CEO Elon Musk criticized the recommendation algorithm, saying he prefers the chronological feed:
Chronological tweets seem much better than what “the algorithm” suggests
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022
Could Twitter’s expansion of recommended tweets mean there are improvements to the algorithm?
You can customize your recommendations by tapping the three-dot icon next to individual tweets.
From there, you can say you’re “not interested in this tweet,” or go a step further and mute the account so Twitter doesn’t recommend it to you again.
Admittedly, it’s a cumbersome way to improve Twitter’s recommendation system, but it’s the only alternative to switching to ‘Latest Tweets.’
Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
